Parkersburg woman writes third book

May 4, 2013

PARKERSBURG - A Parkersburg woman has published her third book, a prequel to the first two set in a fantasy world.

"Dragon Winged" is the third installment in a series about how the dead through a leap of faith return as angels and become "soldiers of good," Colleen Houser said.

Her first two books were "Winged" published in 2006 and the sequel "Foiche De," Gaelic for act of God, she said.

Article Photos

Photo by Jess ManciniColleen Houser of Parkersburg has written a third book, “Dragon Winged.” It is the third installment of the “Winged” series.

The books are set between the high fantasy and modern fantasy worlds, where high fantasy is a world of magic and modern takes place in the real world, she said.

The writings were inspired after the death of her grandmother in 2004 in Hawaii, Houser said. Houser said she didn't know her grandmother well and the sense of loss caused her to find a way to be closer to her grandmother.

Her aunt told her of the legend of the Black Witch moth.

"It sounds ominous, but it's not," Houser said.

If such a moth were to appear in the house after the death of a loved one, it means the departed is happy and has passed over to the other side, Houser said.

"She also told me that (her grandmother) loved angels, so I began to think how the church says that people do not become angels when they die. Angels are separate from humans. I wondered why, and under what circumstances a person could become an angel," Houser said. "They would have to rid themselves of all their emotional baggage, and they'd have to be faithful. They'd have to take a huge leap of faith. I married this to the moth myth and a love of mythology and the Winged were born."

"Dragon Winged" takes place thousands of years ago. A witch attacked the Hall of Winged, turned Seraph the ruler into a demon and caused the extinction of the griffons. The third book tells about how the events that led to the "discovery of the foiche De, the ruin of a Hall, and the disgrace of a Dragon."

The three books in the series are available at amazon.com.

"Dragon Winged" is 352 pages.

The books were published by CreateSpace, a publishing firm owned by amazon.com.

Houser, 27, is originally from California and has been interested in writing her entire life.

"I want to make it my occupation," she said.

Houser and her husband, Clifford Houser, also a fan of fantasy literature, have been married for four years. They first met over the internet, during online discussions about writing and literature when she was 15-years old

The long courtship started four years later when he visited her in California. Four years later they were married.